How can CEAMA concretely and effectively help the bishops and vicars of the Amazon? How can it help local churches face the main pastoral challenges? What functions are episcopal conferences called to fulfill that are relevant and necessary for CEAMA? These are questions that Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ raised at the opening session of the Meeting of Bishops of the Amazon scheduled for August 17-20 in Bogotá.
The prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development recalled that this is precisely the objective of the meeting: to ensure that the voices of the bishops of the Amazon are welcomed, heard, and considered, and that CEAMA redefines its path, relaunching, accompanying, and helping the local Churches to carry out their mission.
For the prelate, the creation of CEAMA represents a new area of synodality that the Latin American Church offers to the whole Church, the universal Church. That is why, in light of the synod on synodality, it is necessary to continue its process of deepening and maturing within the framework of the current phase of reception of the Second Vatican Council.
Shared and inculturated pastoral care
Recalling the birth of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, he referred to the process as a true miracle. The cardinal highlighted its existence as a response to the call made at the time by the synodal path of the Amazon: “to create an Amazonian ecclesial communication network that includes the various means used by the particular Churches and other ecclesial bodies. A structure that was conceived as an incarnate way of carrying forward ecclesial organization.”
From this perspective, Czerny assured that his mission establishes a direct relationship with a shared and inculturated pastoral ministry that must be promoted among the Amazonian dioceses, as proposed years ago by the bishops at the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops in Aparecida.
Five years have passed since the events that marked the birth of CEAMA, and Cardinal Czerny highlights the efforts of this “sprout that grew, developed, and is now beginning to know itself, recognizing its vocation and mission.” An opportunity, he said, to congratulate the organization on this first Assembly of Bishops of the Amazon.
The purpose of the meeting is to give thanks for all this and, at the same time, “to deepen its calling, rediscover its vocation and mission in a more mature way, in order to give new impetus to a new stage in its journey.”
A Church of ministries and charisms
In this regard, the cardinal elaborated on the novelty of the ecclesial body based on the meaning of the acronym that gives it its name: CEAMA.
A “Conference” and “ecclesial,” said the Canadian bishop, explaining that the latter word is of great importance because it refers to its special character among Church institutions.
“It means that its members and participants are not only bishops, but represent vocations within the people of God, the ordained, consecrated, laity, and representatives of catechists and lectors. A Church not only of ministries but also of charisms,” to which is added the participation of regional organizations such as Caritas, CLAR, REPAM, representatives of indigenous peoples, experts, and the Pope himself.
This ecclesial and synodal dimension gives concrete expression to the desire of the bishops in Aparecida regarding the participation of the laity and the importance of discernment, decision-making, planning, and the implementation of the life and mission of the whole Church.
“CEAMA cannot be less episcopal than an ordinary and typical conference; on the contrary, in accordance with the Council and the Synod, it must maintain its episcopal character, strengthen it, and mature it in the light of synodality, because according to the Synod of Bishops, synodality is the most appropriate interpretive framework for understanding the hierarchical ministry,” he commented.
A theological place
He also assured that the third word in the acronym CEAMA is “Amazonia,” which designates a vast reality; here there is a risk of becoming an abstraction.
The word “Church” can also become abstract if its center of gravity is not in the local Church, he warned, that is, it is a portion of the People of God that, as Cherished Amazonia rightly affirms, “reconfigures its own identity in listening and dialogue with the people, realities, and histories of its territory.”
Along these lines, the cardinal insisted that two words must be added to this analysis: “pastoral and territorial,” in order to overcome the conception of the Amazon as a geographical place and understand it as a place where the presence and revelation of God is lived.
Believers find in the Amazon a theological place, that is, a place of meaning for faith or the experience of God in history. “The territory is a theological place where faith is lived; it is also a unique source of God’s revelation.”
These reflections from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development invite us to reflect on the nature and work of CEAMA in light of what he said, namely that a “conference”—whether episcopal or ecclesial—is not designed only to “do,” but to coordinate, articulate, and facilitate.
By: Paola Calderón